As I and every other season ticket holder out there in the Gooner Nation contemplate our season ticket renewals which are due to be paid up in full by the first of next month, just a few days away, the regular Virgin Money Football Price Index done in association with the Football Supporters’ Federation shows that more than one in six of Premier League season ticket holders are planning not to renew next season. Of those who buy match tickets nearly one in three say that are planning to attend less games.
Of course what we actually do rather and what we say we’ll do as fans are sometimes two different things. We can only hope that club administrators get the message. Ticket prices are already mad in this country. They are endangering future generations of supporters getting the habit early which is the best way to recruit new loyal matchgoing fans.
My mate’s eldest son is about to turn eighteen years old. He will no longer be eligible for a Junior Gunners or Cannon Club season ticket. His old man is facing the prospect of finding hundreds of pounds extra for an adult season ticket if he is to continue going to Arsenal, on top of the cost of supporting him in his university studies. Further or higher education has become all but essential to finding a job above street sweeping or flipping burgers at or just above the minimum wage.
Despite Arsenal’s ill-advised and unfair decision to raise prices for next season the club is showing some signs of recognising the problem. That’s to be welcomed. It needs to find solutions working with supporters’ organisations to keep prices down a bit lively. If not we face the prospect of seeing tens of thousands of fans turning up disguised as empty seats in the future. It’s already happening at clubs like Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers where they can’t give tickets away. Annual matchday takings at Rovers are around £5 million a season, a tiny fraction of what we take in. Even then they can’t fill Ewood Park. Likewise at the Reebok Stadium.
I’m afraid the only factor that clubs look at when it comes to pricing is how much can they get away with charging. That’s completely the wrong approach. Car owners will know that it doesn’t pay to skimp on regular maintenance. Vehicles that aren’t properly maintained will keep on working until the moment they don’t, when it costs a fortune to put problems right that wouldn’t have occurred with regular maintenance.
It’s a bit like what a famous educationalist once said. “If you think education is expensive, just try ignorance.” Likewise a chairman of an airline once said, “Maintenance appears expensive until you have an accident.” Football is the same boat. If it just concentrates on maximising income in the short term, it will face an aging matchgoing supporter base. That’s no way to “grow” future generations of matchgoing fans.
Football needs to wake up before it’s too late.
On the pitch, Manchester City’s 3-0 belting of Stoke City on Tuesday night means that we must beat Fulham on Sunday and City must lose or draw for us to take third place and avoid a Champions League play-off at the start of next season. Based on our recent form I’m not optimistic I have to say, but we live in hope.
Keep the faith!
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